Character Rules
This is the outlines of what kinds of Characters you are cleared to create, and what kinds you aren't. Types There are two important distinctions when talking about characters on Universe Unlimited: if the character is a Feature or Original Character, and if it is a Major or Minor Character. Feature Characters Feature Characters are any characters that appear in media that is permitted as being considered "in canon" by Universe Unlimited. Currently, that includes characters that appear in Marvel and DC comics and related media, including films and TV. For more information on what we expect from FCs, please read our rules on canon. We are currently considering other publishers and sources to add to the game; if we add any, there will be a formal announcement. Original Characters These are characters that have not appeared in any other media other than similarly themed MU*s perhaps, and then only if you played the character originally. This also means that these characters are not thinly veiled versions of characters from other media that UU doesn't currently allow. OCs are your own, original creation. Thus the name. Major Characters These are the majority of characters you're going to be applying for in Universe Unlimited. These are the heroes and villains, the movers and shakers of the world that participate in glorious adventures. Major Characters should be considered your primary alts, and are what you are going to spend the vast amount of your time playing. Minor Characters By comparison, Minor Characters are primarily for background support and occasional scenes when appropriate. In effect, they are there to serve as a way to flesh out the world a bit more. That doesn't mean they can't be helpful, or smart, or even save the day with an insightful discovery. But they function as assistance to the Major Characters primarily. Think of the supporting cast of your favorite TV show, that occasionally pop up and offer brief, but entertaining, cameos. Those are Minor Characters. Note that Minor Characters don't count against your character quota, as they really help round out the world and don't really need the same attention as Majors in consistent roleplay. However, if Staff decides that a character concept declared as a Minor is actually Major, we will inform the applicant. Alts Players are currently allowed a quota of 4 major characters, up to 3 of which can be Feature Characters (an exception can be made for 4 Feature Characters if at least one is a villain). If a player is interested in playing more characters than the allotted quota, either FC or OC, staff decides on a case-by-case basis if the player has proven that they can keep the new characters active along with those they already have applied. Alternatively, if Staff is concerned about a particular player keeping Feature Characters active, they can deny aplications "at this time", even if players have not met their set quota. Minor Characters don't count against these quotas. Keep in mind that you can't have two major characters that constitute a "conflict" with each other. Alt conflicts occur when you apply for two different characters that are blood relatives, co-workers, members of the same organization, primary antagonists or other characters who would reasonably be in the same scene at the same time on a regular basis. Also keep in mind that you aren't allowed to have two of your major characters ever help each other, either on or off "screen." Minor characters may be related a bit more closely to your alts, but should still not appear in the same scene at the same time. If you have any questions on if two characters constitute conflict, please ask. If you submit an application that Staff deems constitues an alt conflict with a character you already play, we will give you the choice of either apping the new character or keeping the existing one. Application The staff at Universe Unlimited doesn't believe that applying for a character should be a hurdle to actually playing a character. We want you to have fun with the characters you're interested in playing, and we know that long or over-complicated app processes can sometimes deter your interest. Thus we use an application process that is shorter than some other games, making it easier for both you to apply for a character as well for your fellow players to get a fuller view of who your character is. To this end, we emphasize the concept of keeping applications for characters clear and concise. By clear, we mean that you explain all the information important about your character in understandable language. This includes giving clear limits to their abilities, both physical and mental, and explaining the sources of their powers and skills. We're not asking for in-depth character profiles, just the basic dossier information. Which brings us to the concept of remaining concise. We expect that every section for your application should follow a limit of nine reasonably-sized paragraphs of information. We believe that this is enough space to outline your characters information. Some might argue that, as writers, they enjoy writing more in-depth about their character. Our response is that your application is less for you to prove your writing ability, and more to share information about your character to your fellow players. This may seem heartless and purely functional, but we believe if you want to prove with your writing skills, what better way than to impress in scenes? Claiming Sometimes FCs that you might want to play have idled out. This doesn't mean that they're gone forever, just that you need to claim them as your own. The first step to claiming a character is to check to see if they're available for the taking. First see if the frozen character is located in the chilly Character Storage room, where all idled out FCs are preserved for future play. There you should find any desired idled out FC; if they aren't located here, they either are currently claimed or have never been played and can be claimed freely by simply creating a character. Claiming characters is easy; simply enter +char/claim and you should automatically receive a password for the character. Note that once you claim a character, all the information from the previous player's application with be automatically erased, so if you want to take any notes about what has been previously written, you will want to do so before claiming the character. Remember that straight plagiarism of the previous application will not be accepted, and will lead to automatic rejection as well as a strike against your player record. We simply recommend looking at the previous information as inspiration for your own application. Rejection So you've entered a fantastic application, and eargerly await your approval. But then the worst happens: your application gets a rejection! Oh no! Does this mean the end of the world? How can you go on if you're rejected? First off, calm down. A rejection isn't the end of the world; it just means that your application as is needs a little polish. Typically, this might mean that something needs either a little more information, some balancing tweaks or a few grammatical edits. Occasionally, if Staff deems an application to be contradictory with theme or canon, we might ask you to retool your character concept, which we will be happy to help you with (but you do have to write your own app). Other times, you might be told that your character falls into banned categories, and you need to make some major changes to become approvable. Again, we are willing to assist, but not do your work for you. After your first rejection, if you fix all the requests we make, you should be ready for acceptance. If Staff feels like some improvements still need to be made, we will give a second rejection. Please take our requests with upmost seriousness, resolving anything that we feel makes you unacceptable currently. If you apply a third time with the same issues unresolved, we will have no choice but to ask you to apply for another character. We hope that this occurrence is rare, but we have seen it happen. If you follow our helpful instructions, you should be able to play your desired character as soon as possible with little grief or hair-pulling. Restricted Restricted concepts are those that we allow to be applied for, but expect a higher level of balance, explanation and thought within application. We reserve the right to reject apps that we feel don't quite fit the game thematically or need retooling. Players are welcome to ask for an appeal and we're always open to talk about how we could make it work. But remember, as with all things, Staff's word is final. This list is also an ongoing process, and concepts may be added or subtracted in the future. Staff also reserves the right to ask for retooled applications for character concepts not presented here, if deemed incompatible with this game's theme or tone. These concepts will then be added to the restricted list. List of Restricted Concepts *Aliens *Alternate Dimensions or Times *Angels and Demons *Clones (FC only; OC clones of FCs banned) *Fae *Ferals (OC only) *Gods *Green Lanterns *Immortals *Magic Users *Mythic Beasts and Monsters *Precognition *Probability and Reality Manipulation Banned Banned concepts cannot be applied for as ongoing playable characters. On occasion, banned concepts can be used for NPCs involved in TPs, but only if those TPs have been approved by Staff. While Staff welcomes questions about any of these bans, do understand that it is extremely unlikely many or any of them will be changed or removed. Staff also reserves the right to retroactively add concepts to the list as we encounter or discover other broad ideas we deem unacceptable or unthematic. List of Banned Concepts * FCs (or OC clones) From Sources Not Acknowledged in NEWS CANON * Alternate Reality Copies of Existing FCs, Excluding Variants Seen as Significantly Different Characters (IE: Power Girl, Nate Grey) * Limitless Powers, Abilities or Resources * Powers Designed Specifically for TinySex * Animals or Pets * Characters Under the Age of 16 * Real People, Dead or Alive * Characters From the Real World (IE, FCs in UU are Fictional) * Mary Sues (if you don't know what that is, ask) * OC Relatives of FCs * Characters Listed in NEWS NPC Staff NPCs Certain characters are not available for application, but can be used with staff permission as part of a TP or individual scene. Also, if you need to have a scene with one of these characters, put in a +request and Staff will try to accommodate as soon as possible. Please try to keep your request reasonable; there is no reason for Galactus to show up at your dinner party, but Charles Xavier or President Hundred might. Try to use common sense when making a +request, and know that Staff has the right to deny requests we find unreasonable. Characters can and will be added to this list as we see fit. Staff NPC List Retcon For the most part, if you're picking up a character someone else played before you, we would prefer that you keep their in-game history as it was before. This way keeps other characters histories in-tact as well and makes the transition into the new player easier. However, two players sometimes have different opinions on how a character should be played, and in-game history can scare off possible players from their favorite FCs. In such cases, players are allowed to "retcon" certain aspects of character histories, and most specifically in regards to relationships with other individual characters. Of course, there are some limits to this. Characters shouldn't be aged as younger than they were portrayed before nor aged significantly older. Also, certain relationships are so fundamental to the nature of characters that new players can't deny past history, but only can define how the relationship goes forward. Example: Batman can't very well say that he never has had a Robin if a Robin already exists on the grid. He can, however, turn Robin loose for his own adventures in the future. If you're considering needing to retcon a character significantly, please discuss it with Staff first. We reserve the right to decide that certain retcons are too significant to be allowed. For retconning individual relationships with other characters, discuss it with relevant players first, only bringing disagreements to Staff for mediation as needed. Teams While having solo adventures can be fun and exciting, one easy way to get involved with scenes and TPs is to join an in-game Team. A Team can best be described as any group of heroes or villains that have organized to work towards a common goal. Some famous examples are the Justice League, X-Men and Legion of Doom. You can check +teams for a list of Teams that are currently active in the world of UU. Each Team entry includes the active roster of the team, a short description and team leaders both IC and OOC. Don't see your favorite group represented on the +team list? Send a +request to staff, along with the charter group of members (there should be at least three), a group description, who your IC leader, XO (IC second-in-command) and OOC leaders are, any relevant Boons such as a headquarters and major technology, and if you are currently taking applications for membership or are closed to new members. This can be sent as +request = Applying as Part of a Team Given how Universe Unlimited's reality has about a decade of modern heroism historically, it is reasonable that most established groups have about ten years of membership history as well. As such, applying a character as already being a member of a Team, past or present, is a viable option. However, before applying for a character, it might be prudent to discuss in-game history with the OOC leaders of organizations. A good rule of thumb is that if a character has historically been associated with a particular Team, then you should feel safe applying the character as already being associated with that team. Otherwise, permission must be given by the OOC Leader of a team before the application is submitted. Characters can always be recruited into any team via roleplay. Example: Someone applies for Wolverine, and includes in his background past and current association with the X-Men. Permission from the X-Men's OOC Leader is not required for this membership, as Wolverine is most famously associated with the X-Men. Alternatively, if the same player tried to apply with Wolverine being a past or current member of the JLA, it would require permission both by the Justice League's OOC Leader as well as Staff; this would be considered a heavily restricted concept, for reasons explained in NEWS CANON. All OCs must receive permission from OOC Leaders before including a history with a specific team in their application. Building While we hope that the in-game grids offer enough locations for roleplaying opportunity (we think they're pretty swell!), it is always nice to have your own special place. As such, every player can claim a reasonable amount of space for personal rooms. Unless otherwise stated in the application as a flaw, characters are assumed to have a place of residence such as an apartment or home; that can be constructed as a personal room. Businesses also make good personal rooms, and should be mentioned in the boons section of your application; if you either forgot to include it in your application or your character has acquired one in the process of roleplay, please send a +request to staff before you start building. Thankfully, building is pretty simple. You can find helpful step-by-step instructions located in the Construction Zone of the OOC area. Once you've started the process, make sure to update your +myjobs command. You are given 30 days from the start of your project to finish building; any locations not linked to the main IC grids by then will be demolished with a big black digital wreckingball. Category:Rules